Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Kill your Feeds – Stop letting algorithms dictate what you think

usher.dev

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

321–330 of 332 posts

Re: Kill your Feeds – Stop letting algorithms dictate what you think

#321

Post by johnwarne »

nozzlegear wrote: post #251
ddq wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would love to completely cut reddit out of my life but would enjoy a smaller, more positive alternative that aims to provide the benefits of reddit when it was at its best but without the inherent flaws of the system's design and the dark patterns it is now known to encourage. I'm a bit put off by lemmy from my initial, cursory glance for a variety of reasons, but maybe I'm just using it wrong. Would love to hear s…

I've quit Reddit off and on over the years, and one of my fears the first time was missing out on news or helpful tips from small professional/hobby subreddits. I ended up building a tool that would email me the top 3 posts from a list of subreddits every day, and that was all I needed to quit without feeling like I was missing out. My tool eventually broke after Reddit's api change, but now I use one called redditle…

This was exactly the same kind of motivation that prompted me to create a RSS project to allow me to interact with platforms like Reddit/HN/Lemmy in a more low-volume and healthy way, subscribing to just the top posts in my RSS reader with rich custom feeds.

https://www.upvote-rss.com

Re: Kill your Feeds – Stop letting algorithms dictate what you think

#322

Post by abustamam »

pests wrote: post #110
jasode wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>by Alec's excellent video which I recommend everyone watch. I get what your advice is about but to add some nuance which didn't cover... you should consider that I learned of Alec's Technology Connections channel 9 years ago because the Youtube algorithm suggested it to me . Why did Youtube do that? It was because I had watched Ben's Applied Science excellent video showing vinyl grooves under an electron microscope:…

I agree with you almost completely. I never used YT as a content source until a few years ago - I’d never open the app and only watch videos linked or embedded / looking up a specific how to video. Now it’s different though. I never go to my subscription feed - the front page algo keeps me up to date on any new content from people I want to see updates on. I’ve noticed too it almost has a “shadow subscription” where…

In all honesty I had no idea YouTube had a sub feed until you mentioned it. I still don't know how to access it, but the home page more than suffices for me.

Re: Kill your Feeds – Stop letting algorithms dictate what you think

#323

Post by hollerith »

pests wrote: post #320
hollerith wrote: post #310

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>If you take away or reduce their ad revenue, how do we expect them to survive? I want YT to pay them out of what I pay for YT Premium.

They do, and its a pittance.

Where are you getting this information? Are you a YT creator?

Re: Kill your Feeds – Stop letting algorithms dictate what you think

#324

Post by pests »

hollerith wrote: post #323
pests wrote: post #320

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They do, and its a pittance.

Where are you getting this information? Are you a YT creator?

No, just public sources and seeing others review their income. Which part? YouTube shares details in [0] for how Premium earnings works, I believe the current split is 55% to creators. This is like Spotify where your payment is proportional to your eligible watch time over all watch time from all premium-eligible videos across all premium accounts. YT Premium Lite was announced here [1].

[0] https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6306276

[1] https://blog.youtube/news-and-events/introducing-premium-lit...

Re: Kill your Feeds – Stop letting algorithms dictate what you think

#326

Post by fennecfoxy »

I don't think algorithms are the problem at all...they only magnify existing biases and prejudices. We didn't live in some magical fantastical happy-chappy world before the Internet where people didn't beat their wives and any foreigner they could find, try to kill the gays, etc.

Re: Kill your Feeds – Stop letting algorithms dictate what you think

#327

Post by Nickolya »

jasode wrote: post #101
tom_usher wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was definitely influenced to write this by Alec's excellent video which I recommend everyone watch. I'd hoped it would be a way to share my own opinions on it, summarise my own personal concerns, as well as adding my own recommendations - but totally appreciate if you feel it is derivative, and I appreciate the call out. As a big Technology Connections fan I certainly don't intend to steal his work. It's also inten…

>by Alec's excellent video which I recommend everyone watch. I get what your advice is about but to add some nuance which didn't cover... you should consider that I learned of Alec's Technology Connections channel 9 years ago because the Youtube algorithm suggested it to me . Why did Youtube do that? It was because I had watched Ben's Applied Science excellent video showing vinyl grooves under an electron microscope:…

You make a valid point about the benefits of algorithms in content discovery. While they can enhance our experience by introducing relevant material, it's crucial to maintain control over our consumption to avoid potential echo chambers.

On a related note, for those looking to access diverse content without regional restrictions, reliable proxy services can be invaluable. NodeMaven offers high-quality proxies that ensure secure and unrestricted browsing. I can drop a link for everyone as Iir realy helped me during mu thesis https://nodemaven.com/proxies/residential-proxies/.

Re: Kill your Feeds – Stop letting algorithms dictate what you think

#328

Post by computably »

jasode wrote: post #101
tom_usher wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was definitely influenced to write this by Alec's excellent video which I recommend everyone watch. I'd hoped it would be a way to share my own opinions on it, summarise my own personal concerns, as well as adding my own recommendations - but totally appreciate if you feel it is derivative, and I appreciate the call out. As a big Technology Connections fan I certainly don't intend to steal his work. It's also inten…

>by Alec's excellent video which I recommend everyone watch. I get what your advice is about but to add some nuance which didn't cover... you should consider that I learned of Alec's Technology Connections channel 9 years ago because the Youtube algorithm suggested it to me . Why did Youtube do that? It was because I had watched Ben's Applied Science excellent video showing vinyl grooves under an electron microscope:…

> Arguably, the algorithms could put one into a non-productive engagement loop never to escape. Personally, I don't think it's a big risk for educational/DIY topics because your brain gets saturated with "too much information" and hits a stopping point where you don't want to learn any more.

In my personal experience, "edutainment" can certainly be addictive, and more often than not, consuming it is "unproductive" because (1) consuming content aimlessly is intrinsically mostly passive, (2) passive consumption is ineffective for retaininig knowledge or building understanding, (3) content is often superficially interesting because of a spectacular and/or highly simplified presentation.

This is only a counterpoint to the idea that educational content is limited in its potential to be addictive/unproductive; there is still, obviously, a great positive potential to high-quality educational content.

Re: Kill your Feeds – Stop letting algorithms dictate what you think

#329

Post by edgarischatting »

ddq wrote: post #112
crims0n wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a book for this, aptly titled “You Should Quit Reddit”. It got me to quit, highly recommend it.

I would love to completely cut reddit out of my life but would enjoy a smaller, more positive alternative that aims to provide the benefits of reddit when it was at its best but without the inherent flaws of the system's design and the dark patterns it is now known to encourage. I'm a bit put off by lemmy from my initial, cursory glance for a variety of reasons, but maybe I'm just using it wrong. Would love to hear s…

If you happen to use Reddit in a browser, Safari, then check out Protego for Reddit. You can add keyword filters to hide posts based on keywords, such as political terms. Makes browsing Reddit more positive for sure.

Re: Kill your Feeds – Stop letting algorithms dictate what you think

#330

Post by richardgill88 »

Couldn't agree more! This problem is severe for me, I ended building limitphone.com to lock down my Android phone so that I CANNOT bypass blocked apps (using mdm built-in to Android). It has a custom build of firefox that blocks in the browser that allows me to still watch a single youtube video.
Post reply on HN